Texts in Conversation
Genesis 12 tells how Abraham and Sarah go to Egypt in a story that anticipates the exodus. Pharaoh is struck with plagues, and he sends Abraham away with the same language used for Israel’s release. The similarity suggests the Genesis narrative was intentionally shaped to anticipate the Exodus story.
Share:
Genesis 12:20
Hebrew Bible
17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues45 because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, and so they expelled him, along with his wife and all his possessions.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Exodus 12:32
Hebrew Bible
31 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! 32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” 33 The Egyptians were urging the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, for they were saying, “We are all dead!”
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Search:
Notes and References
"... The ancestral story begins with the narrative of Abraham’s trek to Egypt, the danger to Sarah there, and the return to Canaan (Genesis 12:10–20). This narrative clearly evokes images of the Exodus event, and the vocabulary in the passage suggests that these associations are intentional: Pharaoh is struck (נגע) with plagues (verse 17), as in Exodus 11:1; he sends (שלח) Abraham and his entourage forth, echoing the key word in Exodus 5–11 (verse 20); even the commands to let Abraham and Moses go correspond to one another (קח ולך in Genesis 12:17 and קחו ולכו in Exodus 12:32). “In many respects, the episode is accordingly shaped as a prefiguration of the later exodus, as a piece of salvation history at the beginning of the history of Israel.” How one should evaluate this prefiguration is unclear at first glance. However, we can at least note that in diachronic terms Abraham does not prefigure Moses, but Moses is an epigone of Abraham ..."
Schmid, Konrad
Genesis and the Moses Story: Israel ’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible
(p. 57) Eisenbrauns, 2010
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.